Copper Princesses Qualify for World Cup
The Zambia Under-17 women’s national football team has qualified for the 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup after playing to a barren result away to Morocco last night.
The Copper Princesses took a decent advantage into Saturday night’s return leg encounter after their impressive 3-1 victory over the Moroccans last week in Lusaka.
With a draw sufficient to secure their spot in the Dominican Republic, coach Carol Kanyemba’s girls put up a gallant performance in Berkane to hold off the host’s attacks throughout the encounter.
Nonetheless, it was the Copper Princesses who aimed to break the deadlock in Berkane as attacker Ruth Mukoma’s strike came off the cross-bar in the 24th minute.
Morocco was then seemingly awoken with its star player Azraf Kautar, scorer of her side’s lone goal in Lusaka, coming close to inflicting pain on the Zambians. Her shot was headed for goal before midfielder Margaret Gondwe made a vital clearance.
Zambia’s attack was then tightly marked for the rest of the encounter with the first-leg hat-trick heroine, Namute Chileshe, not allowed to make her dangerous forward runs.
The Copper Princesses held on till Ugandan match-official Shamirah Nabadda signaled the end of the match to confirm their qualification via a 3-1 aggregate scoreline.
The result confirmed Zambia’s second qualification for the U-17 Women’s World Cup. The first appearance was in 2014 when the now women’s senior team made the country’s debut at that stage.
Zambia joins Nigeria as two of the three nations that will represent Africa at the tournament.
The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be hosted by the Dominican Republic and will take place from October 16 through to November 3.
